Eclipse overshadows Texas’ solar power strength

The electric grid in Texas has gained the reputation of being held together with duct tape after blackouts in the past decade. But on Monday from around noon to 3 p.m. CDT, when the moon briefly blocks the sunlight in a solar eclipse, the Lone Star State will do just fine. That’s despite massive growth in solar power. Fast-growing access to battery technology is helping, and less-predictable natural events, like 2021, cold snap, will provide a bigger test. But for now, the Lone Star State’s solar strength can overshadow the eclipse.

The last such astrological event hit the United States in 2017, and since then, solar power in the country has more than tripled, according to the US Energy Information Administration, providing 4 per cent of the nation’s generation last year. Texas has become a lab in deploying green power. Population growth, plenty of wind and sun, and a willingness to build have combined to result in astonishing amounts of utility-scale solar plants being deployed, as it’s now the cheapest form of new electricity., The state generated 14 times more solar power last year than it did in 2017. On Sunday afternoon, it provided about a third of power in Texas.

Knocking almost all of this power offline on Monday afternoon is unlikely to cause any problems, according to ERCOT. Yet solar eclipses are the ultimate predictable event. A bigger test comes when something unforeseen happens.

Still, the future is looking bright for solar. A substantial chunk now, and a much larger amount in the future, will be able to be stored in batteries, making power accessible for hours after the sun stops shining. Lithium-ion batteries give a way to port cheap or unused solar or wind power at other times. Power storage on Sunday evening in Texas, for example, accounted for over 3 per cent, of all supply. The IEA predicts battery storage nationwide will almost double, this year to about 15 gigawatts. Texas claims over 40 per cent of that capacity as its own.

Batteries still aren’t economical for longer periods – days of cloudy weather, say. And for now, fossil fuel generation provides a buffer. But new forms of long-duration storage, from batteries using different chemistries to geothermal, may offer future options. Texas is a hotbed for exploratory deployment of these technologies. Even clean, renewable energy can be bigger in Texas.